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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Law & Order LA “Sylmar” Recap & Review

All photos from NBCU

Law & Order Los Angeles “Sylmar” was one of those episodes that had a great first half, and then a flat second half. Despite DDA Joe Dekker’s (Terrence Howard) setback with the Feds taking over his case and his subequent battle to get his case back, the episode still loses momentum. Part of is it due to the trite scenarios with the cranky and politically constipated DA (played by a somewhat stiff Peter Coyote) thinking that Dekker is making the wrong moves and doing it for his ego, then the usual battle for jurisdiction with the media close at hand. Howard had a little more life in this episode than in his first outing, but I still am not convinced he’s right for the role. I am not sure if he is trying to relay that his character is intense and passionate but his treacly speeches and his long gazes and glares at other people don’t seem to be having that effect on me. It may also be that his voice is simply not strong enough to project in the same forceful and authoritative way that DDA Ricardo Morales’ (Alfred Molina) does. Even when Howard is trying to be passionate about his cause, he still comes off as weak. Megan Boone also doesn’t help much, playing her role too low key and with barely any emotion. There is no spark between either of them and I wonder if she is just not the right match for Howard. It could be the writing, since they seem to be giving him the sugary, overly emotional dialog which seems forced. One thing I do know - they need to work on the second half of the show more so than the first.

Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll are far more believable in their roles, and I find that I really like Corey more and more with each episode. (I'm still working on getting comfortable with Skeet.) This paring is coming together better than with the DDAs. As the DDA teams alternate each week and the detectives do not, it may take much longer for viewers to acclimate to one or both legal teams. The alternating DDAs also makes it easy to compare each team and to like one team over the other, something that may also be working against Howard, at least in my mind.

I could have done without the sappy line from Rex Winters at the opening about leaving your kids at home when visiting a meth lab. It was a silly comment that did not properly convey the real tragedy of something like two innocent children being killed in such a horrific fashion. I’ve also seen a lot of news coverage of meth lab explosions, but Sylmar's seemed to do very little structural damage to the house and garage. I know we’re talking TV special effects here, but I would have expected a little more debris and the garage looking more damaged than just the door being blown off with flames coming out. The car also didn’t seem to move at all from the blast. OK, it’s a nitpick, I know. (Update – here’s a link to a video which shows how the explosion/car fire was done: "Law & Order Los Angeles “Sylmar” explosion and car fire behind the scenes" Interesting.)Here is the recap:

A woman leaves her 2 kids in the car parked in front of a house and goes inside the house where a man is waiting. Soon afterwards, an explosion from inside the garage occurs, and the car is engulfed in flames, the children still inside.

Later, Detectives Rex Winters (Skeet Ulrich) and Tomas "TJ" Jaruszalski (Corey Stoll) are on the scene along with police and fire departments. The mother of the two children, Kimberly Miller (Shannon Lucio), is distraught over the loss of her children. The owner of the house, Ronnie Powell, is not on the premises. Kim was just at the house to drop something off for a friend. When the garage blew up he ran to his truck and drove away. There is evidence that there was a meth lab in the garage. As Kimberly screams uncontrollably, Rex looks into the burned out car and says, “Word to the wise: if you’re your gonna drop in on your friendly neighborhood meth cooker, leave the kids at home.”

They question Kimberly who said she did not know Ronnie had a meth lab. She was just retuning his plastic sunglasses.

As the detectives check out the house, they find bullets and yellow sunglasses which don’t look plastic.

At the home of Kim and Kevin Miller, Kim insists to Rex the sunglasses had dark lenses. Kevin (Josh Close) asks TJ about Ronnie. He thinks he knows Ronnie from softball last year and then runs out to scream at his wife about being with Ronnie. She admits she was seeing him, and Kevin becomes crazed with anger. She does not know where Ronnie is. Kevin later tells him that Ronnie lives with his mom.

At the home of Ellen Powell (Dee Wallace), she explains Ronnie moved out last year. His sister Amy (Kathleen Rose Perkins) is there, and she tells Rex that Ronnie was a godless screw up. His mother doesn’t believe TJ when he tells her about the drugs. She says he works with model planes and UPS delivered some supplies for him to her home a few weeks ago.

The detectives go to the company who skipped the fuel for the model airplanes, and TJ sees is it nitro methane. It is the same fuel used by Tim McVey for the Oklahoma City bombing. But back at the home, they find that nitro methane was not used at the home. They think Ronnie has it in is truck.

Back at the Robbery Homicide division, they review their findings with Lt. Arleen Gonzales (Rachel Ticotin). They are concerned about the powerful explosive. Gonzales gets a car saying a patrol has found Ronnie’s truck parked. And she is sending over the bomb squad. She tells them to check his cell phone for contacts in the area.

Soon afterwards, the police break down the door of Jack Bryce, who says he doesn’t know where Ronnie is. Rex believes Ronnie is in the crawl space and TJ convinces him to come out by threatening to send rats in after him. He exits and they arrest him.

At RHD, Ronnie is in interrogation. The detectives did not find any evidence of the fuel at the house. The lab did find traces of denatured alcohol in the cook pot at his meth lab. The detectives speak with Ronnie and he knows nothing about the fuel and says he didn’t order anything. They tell him they found denatured alcohol in his cook pot and ask who was in his garage. It was just his sister’s fiancé. He says they got it wrong, every cooked know denatured alcohol in the cook pot will cause an explosion. He realizes what is going on but says now he wants a lawyer and a DA to cut a deal.

DDA Jonas Dekker (Terrence Howards) refused to cut any deals. The detectives remind him someone sabotages his meth lab, the same people who are likely using the fuel for a bomb. Gonzales tells them to get with Ronnie’s sister.

At Cooke’s Supermarket, Amy Powell tells the detectives that her fiancé Terry Walker is at a campground in Topanga until he gets back on his feet. They ask her to take them there. Later, the detectives arrive at the campground. Terry (Kenneth Mitchell) says he was in Ronnie’s garages to get wiper fluid. He also adds he drove his RV with the pickup in tow when he came there. The detectives ask him to take Amy back to her job, and as they walk off, Rex tells TJ the ball on the RV doesn’t match the hitch on the pickup and somebody else drove that truck.

At RHD, Rex tells Gonzales that the campground office said Terry came in two months ago with two other men driving the pickup who have not been seen in a week. TJ also says that the Terry did not come in via Rt. 40 as he said, they found a speeding ticket and parking ticket in other areas of the country. The parking ticket was two block away from a farm supply store where he could have purchased fertilizer.

The detectives go back to Ellen Powell, who says Amy seems to go through a lot of men – the field plays her. Terry also left a suitcase at the house and when they look at it, they find a dress in the closet that is a traditional Muslim garb. Ellen says Amy is not Muslim. They look at Amy’s computer, and they quickly find a recording made by Amy in the dress which seems to imply she has terrorist ideas.

Soon afterwards, Rex and TJ arrest Amy at the store, and she starts ranting at the onlookers about them being the godless and guilty ones and they should all burn in hell.

Back at RHD, they look at the video with Dekker and DDA Lauren Stanton (Megan Boone). Amy has asked for a Koran and then a lawyer. They see photos on Amy, Terry, and their friends in Muslim attire. It looks like a terror cell. Walker is army reserve, demo unit. They need to do facial recognition on the others to get their ID. TJ finds an address that is either a safe house or a target.

At the home of Jason McParr, they find a private security firm there. Jason says he has been getting threats for one of his animated TV shows because of the religious parody. He recognizes Amy from a coffee place he was in.

Later, Stanton and the detectives speak with Amy about what Terry is doing and she says Terry is pure and their love is blessed. Stanton reminds Amy she is facing two murder charges but Amy refuses to talk.

Outside the room, TJ says facial recognition has ID’d Terry’s friend, they are Joey Pine and Roger Hagan, Hagan did federal time for a bomb and his old cellmate is a welder. They speak with the welder, Wilson, who says Hagan came there last month just to shoot the breeze and came with another guy who paid him cash to cut some mental plates. He still has the specs for them, adding that the guys wanted everything ready before Thanksgiving. They look at the sketch of the plates and TJ thinks they could fit on the floor of the RV, if the fuel and fertilizer was on top, the blast would be directed up and sideways. Wilson says the last time he heard from the guys it sounded like he was near and airport, and he said he was in a bar with a lot of lava lamps.

At the Encounter Restaurant at LAX, a server identifies the three men as being in there, they looked like business travelers and they always sat at table 11 by the window. The area has a clear view of terminal 7 and wonder if they are planning something during the high travel time.

Back with Amy, they confront her with what they think Terry is planning to do, and she won’t believe it. Dekker says her heart doesn’t lie, Terry was a good man, but the other men turned him and twisted him. She thinks Roger Hagan made him do it. Roger met a girl on Craig’s list and is renting her garage, her name is Betty in West Chester.

Later,
the detectives, along with a support team and bomb squad, tear off the door of a storage garages and they find the guys there along with the RV. They are arrested. The bomb in the RV is not armed but looked set up and ready to go.

All the suspects are being arraigned for conspiracy and murder and they plead not guilty and start grandstanding. Dekker wants no bail, and Amy’s lawyer says Amy is a victim. Judge Wallen (Gibby Brand) holds them all without bail. But Assistant US Attorney Robert Schuler and Army Captain James Locke enter and says they have been ordered by the department of defense to take custody. Dekker wants the order stayed but the judge does not have the authority and must surrender the defendants. As they are being hauled off by the military. Dekker is on the phone with DA Jerry Hardin trying to get his help to stop it but is having no luck. Amy’s attorney Tasker said she was getting ready to cooperate and can tie Terry’s buddies to the murder.

At the JAG office at the LA Air Force Base, the JAG Officer (Tim Guinee) tells Dekker that Tasker was denied access because is no longer Amy’s attorney and she and the other defendants are being assigned new counsel for a military trial. Dekker needs to get a statement from Amy but as she is a military detainee, whatever she says is classified. Dekker needs her in order to convict Walker, but is told the group is being charged instead with treason and they will not be tried for murder. Dekker says he has a better conviction record and says they are interfering with his ability to make a case. The JAG tells Dekker it is out of his hands.

In DA Jerry Hardin’s (Peter Coyote) office, he tells Dekker there is nothing he can do. Dekker thinks that it will look like Hardin is giving up and politically that will look bad for him. Dekker says if it were him he would hedge his bets.

Later, Dekker is talking to the press that the LA DA will go to federal court to dispute the military jurisdiction. Dekker thinks LA can handle the security challenge with a trial in LA. As Dekker and Stanton watch the news report, Stanton says Dekker is pushing a boulder up Laurel Canyon. He says she sounds like it’s not worth him pushing.

At the Federal Courthouse, Rex and TJ arrive to see the media waiting. Rex and TJ disagree on the military vs. non-military trial. Dekker arrives to the same media circus.

In court, Dekker argues his point as does the JAG officer. Dekker tells the judge the there may be fears that a trial would incite the enemies but no matter what they do, it carries the same risk. People need to see justice done.
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Afterwards, Dekker, Stanton, and Hardin watch the news footage of the terror suspects being returned to LA county custody. As Terry yells out to the cameras, Hardin hotly tells Dekker “be careful what you wish for.” But Dekker thinks they are in good shape, Amy has agreed to testify against Walker. Hardin is worried about Walker’s new attorney, Lane Garfield whose past history shows he will turn this into a terrorist pep rally. Hardin thinks Dekker is putting his personal interests ahead of the DA’s offices.

In Superior Court, Judge Rumford (Clyde Kusatsu) calls the jury in for opening statements, but before they are led in, Dekker tells the judge they are dismissing all the charges related to the conspiracy to bomb LAX and instead are trying each defendant on two counts of murder – no terrorism case. Garfield (Conor O’Farrell) and the defendants looks stunned. When Garfield asks why, Judge Rumford doesn’t understand why he is complaining and says to get on with it.

Dekker makes his opening statement, saying it is about two little kids from Sylmar who were killed by the group. Garfield tries to make it about terrorism, and Dekker reminds them they are not being charged with terrorist acts. Garfield is told to stick to the murder charges, and when Garfield tries another angle on the terrorism agreement he is again stopped.

Kim is on the stand recounting how the kids were killed. Garfield tries to cross examine making it about terrorism, and he is stopped again.

Amy is testifying for the prosecution about how he got the denatured alcohol and found Terry pouring the alcohol into Ronnie’s meth pot and said he is making sure Ronnie can’t make drugs anymore and said if she loved him she would obey him. She was being used. Garfield shows a photo of a drawer in Walker’s RV, and in it is a diamond engagement ring. She is stunned. When Garfield asks about the denatured alcohol, Amy suddenly changes her story and says she lied, she did it all and only lied to avoid the death penalty.

Dekker, on rebuttal, asks who told her to use her brother’s name to get the bomb supplies, but he is then stopped because they are not allowed to discuss the terror attempt – Dekker’s own ground rule. He asks her about converting to Islam, a strict form and learned what was expected of her, to obey her husband and get his approval before making any decision, including killing her brother. When he asks if she got Terry’s permission to kill her brother, he doesn’t respond, and Dekker says she doesn’t have to answer.

During Garfield’s closing statement, DA Hardin walks into the courtroom. Garfield says Dekker prevented them from hearing evidence and they did not get a fair trial. When Dekker closes, he says there is no doubt Amy’s loneliness made her prey to people with evil intent, and Terry Walker is responsible for the explosion. He said there is no doubt that the taking of innocent lives should never happen and it is only right and proper for someone to speak for the innocent victims, and they can speak for two of them. Murder is murder, and let everyone watching this trial know it. Hardin exits the courtroom.

Later, they are all found guilty of murder in the first degree on both counts. Terry begins to rant that there are more of them and they are everywhere. They are whisked out of the courtroom.

When Dekker and Stanton exit the courtroom, Kevin Miller is waiting there and he thanks them for everything. Dekker tells them it may be years before they face execution but he will get a call when it happens. Kevin says he and Kim are not interested, they’ve seen enough. As Dekker and Stanton walk off, the sad family sits on a bench as we fade to black.

14 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Just love Corey Stoll. He's perfect. Skeet is OK. I am sure I will grow to like him.

Terrence Howard, though, is trying too hard or something. I agree he looks like he is trying to be so intense but he is not pulling it off. I like Peter Coyote but geez they've given him some crappy dialog here.

Maybe you have to be a lawyer to get excited about jurisdictional battles? Ok, two kids died - but it wasn't as though they were going to be brought back to life if the case were tried in LA. When Jack McCoy fought to have the torture case tried in NY it was because it was clear that if the feds got it, it wouldn't be tried at all, but these guys are going away, no matter whether they're tried for murder or terrorism. Also, saying the feds had only won 4 of 10 cases wasn't all that fair to the prosecutors - the cases themselves were weak, while this one would have been rock-solid.

As for the DDA here - he's in the wrong profession. Maybe the writers and the actor are aiming for sensitive, but they're ending up with sappy.

It would have been a good, fast-paced cop show if they'd simply ended it with the arrests. (I switched it off soon after the 2nd half started and appreciated being able to learn from the recap how it ended. So the locals got the case back - too bad, in my opinion - private revenge vs the public satisfaction of finally dealing with a real, non-entrapped terrorist group.)

I think it was brilliant how the DA effectively silenced the grandstanding by dropping the terrorism charges; this whole case started because two children died. Not because they were the target of a terrorist attack, but because their murderers didn't care who got hurt.

I was against the Feds taking the perps and trying them in secret because in a way, that's what they wanted. They wanted to be martyrs; they wanted to tell the world how the military tortured them and didn't give them a fair trial--etc. By trying them publicly and putting the focus on the two kids they killed, that served as a greater punishment and form of revenge because the DA took away their ability to spew BS rhetoric.

They did it without compromising their civil rights and in the eyes of the public.

There are actually three explosions in this episode; the bomb that shatters the domestic routine of quiet suburbs, the website video that shatters the ordinary appearance of the all American youth to reveal the horror of homegrown terrorists, and the decision to try the suspects as ordinary murderers instead of ideological terrorists that shocks the court. These moments are thrown like bombshells to shatter our preconceptions and the plot turns on each event. It is well crafted drama with themes developing for the season…much more than a basic procedural.

The theme of children “playing”, fantasies and not “growing up” to take responsibility in society continues. Amy, the “flower girl”, is lost in her fantasies of love and marriage, playing at “dressing up” in her abhayah costume, role playing political speeches, “working to the script” in an archaic fantasy storybook language-“Our love is blessed. I would rather cut out my heart than let you hurt my Beloved”. She is childlike and easily led, lost in her own world, not realising the consequences of her action until the trial.

The boys, whether they are called Jeff or Ronny or Terry also have their fantasies of heroism, dressing up as Muslim extremists. These gender defined fantasies of Love and Heroics are fed in childhood; Skeet looks at his “toughguy” son photo on his desk, the mother says “be a big boy” to her son, throwing him Action Man for amusement. Its important to Terry that he keep his fantasy and be tried as a heroic muslim soldier, not an ordinary murderer. Those heroic fantasies are homegrown by the way we bring up our children, not learnt in muslim madrassas. These adults are still children dressing up and evading the real world of responsibilities. Ronny is afraid of rats and says “its not my fault”, like a child. Terry plays the role of an outlaw in the woods (beautiful use of lighting there!). They still play with monster robot toys and toy planes.

The man who wrote the “Three Stooges” cartoon parody is the same. He plays irresponsibly with peoples values and doesn’t realise the consequences, though his wife does. The “Encounter” restaurant is also like a 60s youth fantasy with its lava lamps and “road warriors” who are really business travellers. There are constant references to fireworks and cartoons and the circus. The opposing attorney even has the name of a trouble making cartoon cat, Garfield.

It’s the court room that explodes these fantasies and brings things back to the basic human level with a very basic human being in the shape of Dekker. He is not what you expect in an attorney. Jonah Dekker is the right name for him, a man who has the human touch. That, in itself is very disturbing for people in this setting…and especially for the DA. They want their attorneys to play the part and be professional because that’s what they expect. Dekker is going to defy expectations and win cases on balance and humanity, not abstractions and points of Law;”this is not about terrorism, politics or ideology, but about two kids”. True to type, he keeps it human and simple, even at the expense of seeming foolish himself. Now that’s real bravery.

In the end it is Amy Powell’s Love conviction, or lack of it, that determines the Court conviction and that is about the laws of human nature, not the legal system. Thats an interesting mix.

1) This new DA is the antithesis to the Law and Order model. He is so atypical that I like him because it is refreshing and current. We have moved from the secure aristocratic traditional and avuncular Adam Schiff who sat in an armchair, through levels of shifting idealism in various DAs, to this steely eyed man who embodies the Law as it is now. He is a business man, cold and calculating his own interests first, minimalist in his minimalist office high up in the skies and remote from the people, functional, making money , efficient and self-serving. Nature in the form of his domesticated dog/horse figurines is under his tight control (not the wild animals of Leights crime scenes in LOCI then). And no Mothership morologues for him! His language is succinct and he even walks out before the verdict. He embodies a Law which is not about morals or ideals or people; its about business elites. Its not what we would expect or like, but it might be more contemporary. Plus, it promises good dramatic conflict between this “dispirited” DA and the “spirited” Morales and Dekker.

2) There is so much going on in every scene, similar to LOCI aesthetics, with as much attention to the detail of background as of foreground. This gives unusual visual depth which enhances the storytelling. Visual motifs are recurring, especially to do with Nature and the natural world, so, the animal statues, cut flowers, the strangely lit otherworldy woods. Nature is everywhere, even in the paintings. The deliberate use of camera angles and lighting effects builds up atmosphere. I particularly like the sinister lighting effects and shadows of the faceless secretive men who remove the suspects in the holding area of the courthouse. They are using mirrors as they did in LOCI and in early Mothership. The recurrence people filming in the background, constantly reminds us of this “film city”. Nice.

3) I confess that the Law side of this franchise with its basic dramatised adversarial argument presented by two people in court as moralogues etc has always annoyed me as patronising. I think Perry Mason would probably bore me now if I watched it too, because attitudes to Law have changed. Also there is a danger that attorney characters just become shallow mouth pieces for authorial comment, or it becomes a show of polemics. There is a danger of Dekker becoming a mouthpiece unless they start to deepen his character by giving him more mannerisms, flaws etc. We need to see more of his background. Morales is beginning to deepen and we need the same from Dekker.

4) Court scenes have got very stale over the years, but something different is going on here. The court room has become almost the scene of initiation into adulthood where the extremes of immature behaviour are moderated and balanced as suspects take responsibility and grow up. This is a court of natural law as much as it is a court of man-made law, where Morales and Dekker listen to their heart as much as their head. In this episode the two attorneys are jousting to knock Amy from a love fantasy that is delusional and confusing. So the courtroom has a joint function and that’s original. I really like Dekkers use of Silence in the courtroom, the tension.They will have to work harder to make the courtroom come alive, different camera angles from above perhaps, or shots through those geometric windows where voices could be muffled. They did use out of focus shots with the two sides of the argument…but they could do so much more to interest us. There are some comic asides amongst the witnesses seated in court…but what about other characters in this arena from cleaners to clerks. They all make the courtroom live and give it depth. Then it would cease to be a fusty wood panelled abstraction and become another character.

5) In terms of background Art, there is the FinalityArt that freezes into solidified static form like the statues or figurines, and there is the Infinite Art that flows to grow like arabesque and geometric pattern.

I like the way LOLA challenges preconceptions and opens up ideas. Its challenging itself too. (So long as it doesn’t get bogged down in turgid legal argument. Leave that for radio debating!)

But why are the women characters all so weak and subsidiary? Its an all boys club at the moment.

You will find the same amount of detail on most LOCI sites from seasons 1-7.....hundreds of pages on each episode going on for weeks...in fact over 200pages on some sites. That is what made it interesting,and why it was so horrible when people lost interest and stopped watching.

People watch for different reasons without diminishing anyones enjoyment.I dont like Law and Order UK but I like reading the detailed comments about it here.

I liked LOCI 1-7 when the writing was enjoyable. Warren Leight brought some 'life' to Criminal Intent from seasons 5-7 (even with Balcer). Especially to the character Mike Logan; we saw a somewhat different 'more humane' side of him in LOCI than we did in Exiled or L&O (1990-95).

Leight should have never stepped off of CI. He needs to come in the final season. Most people don't watch for the actor; they watch for the acting and the writing. Which something that CI has lacked since the eighth season.

People wanted D'Onofrio/Erbe/Noth nominated for awards in 2006-2008; but in 2009-present not many say a word anymore. Even this year Goldblum fans were disappointed on how the character Nichols went down from his freshman season.

Where this concerns with LOLA: Terrence Howard is a fine actor I think he was good in "Hustle & Flow". On LOLA his scripts... he does fine when he's not in the courtroom: but they want him to appeal to the people (and to the viewers) when he is in the courtroom which is why some say it sounds like he's about to choke; he may be pouring too much emotion into it.

In one woman's opinion I have to say I'll watch the last 30 mins of LOLA (may it be w/ Terrence Howard or Alfred Molina) than the first 30. I can tell that Skeet Ulrich is trying but... well... Corey Stoll is what makes it (the partnership) interesting and at times comical to me.

Stoll's Jaruzalski is another Eames/Briscoe/Fontana which is good. Ulrich's Winters seems to be following the early days of Mike Logan and Rey Curtis when it comes down to the character... the blandness.

As for the women I think Regina Hall's Price is ok but Megan Boone looks too young to be a D.D.A. and she's not getting enough scenes to express her character. Stanton just seems to be Dekker's 'water girl'.

But all that means is: don't bash the actor; it's the writing and the showrunning. Rene Balcer is 'supposedly' running this show (Jankowski and Misiano are okay) but I think Blake Masters has his hands all over LOLA.

I can tell that LOLA is still "Law & Order" but you have to understand that the show is in Los Angeles as well (which some fans dislike; and I don't know why). It's a good show that just needs a big take off (not like "Hollywood"/"Echo Park"). It's getting better: it just takes time and it needs some help.

The bald guy's pretty good, but the rest of these actors are wretched. So too the writing. I cannot believe how poorly cast this show is, esp. when compared to the final cast of the "mothership" franchise.